Catherine Hunter Book Launch
Fri. Oct. 23 07:00 PM
- Fri. Oct. 23 09:00 PM
Location: McNally Robinson Booksellers
Professor Catherine Hunter is launching a new novel this Fall.
After Light is the tale of four generations of the Garrison family. The story begins in 1920, when young Deirdre flees Ireland to find a better life in Brooklyn. The secrets she carries will shape her fate and the fates of all who come after her. Her son Frank, a promising young artist, is blinded in WW2 and forced to create a whole new life for himself. He marries and settles in Canada, where his wife raises hothouse roses on the frozen prairie. But the war has shaken him deeply, and his daughters live in terror of his violent outbursts.
Catherine says, “Like Frank, my own father was an American who joined the Canadian army early in the war, before the States became involved. He too was wounded at Dieppe and later blinded in Holland. Although no one used the term PTSD at that time, he definitely suffered the after effects of the trauma he lived through, and I hope I have been able to give some insight into the condition and its effects on returned soldiers and their families. Ultimately, After Light is about recovery from trauma.”
Catherine will be reading from her novel at the Whistler Writers Festival, at Pages Books in Calgary, at Ben McNally Books in Toronto, at Books on Beechwood in Ottawa, and at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly in Montreal.
The official Winnipeg launch of After Light is on October 23rd, at McNally Robinson, at 7:00 p.m.
“Catherine Hunter is a brilliant and original writer. In After Light, she deftly unfolds the story of a family and a century, revealing the fierce and redemptive power of art. This is a profound, wondrous and riveting book that will shine on long after you have finished reading.” — John K. Samson (The Weakerthans)